FIRM HITS PBIA AIR-CONDITIONING PLAN

A last-ditch appeal by a Fort Lauderdale firm seeking a chance to install an air-conditioning system in the new Palm Beach International Airport terminal was rejected by County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Steve Whitcomb of Boca Raton, an engineer for Gulfstream Pump and Equipment Co., charged engineers working on the project had been giving his company the cold shoulder since November.

The system that will be used in the terminal, he said, is both inefficient and uneconomical in high-humidity areas such as South Florida.

"My whole intent isn't to sell a system," Whitcomb said, adding that his company's system would prove to be far less costly in the long run.

County Engineer Herb Kahlert, however, said Gulfstream's system had been studied thoroughly, and engineers and consultants still believe the system designed for the terminal is the best one.

"We have probably spent more time on this one issue than many others," Kahlert said. "We all felt the design we have taken today is the one we should go with. The technicians have beaten this one around."

With the project almost ready to go to bids, he said, it probably is too late to make any changes.

Whitcomb's arguments would be valid with an office building system that only operated eight hours a day, five days a week, Kahlert said, but that is not the case with the airport, which will operate 24 hours a day.

One of the major advantages to the system designed for the terminal, which uses outside air, is its ability to evacuate smoke quickly in case of a fire, Kahlert said.

Commissioner Dorothy Wilken, who requested an outside expert to review the two systems, said she was satisfied that county engineers and architects had made the right decision.

"We have spent an inordinate amount of staff time and commissioners' time on this," she said, "and at no time have I noted any weakening. There is absolutely no point in going to alternate bids on this proposal."

Whitcomb, however, said both sides had not been heard at meetings set up by Wilken.

"It comes down to politics, it's as simple as that" he said. "I have been trying to present this since November, and now you say there isn't time."